Nabel Othmani
Music Of The Sahara Nabil Othmani : Tamghart In (ALG,2010)***'
This is a rather young sounding Touareg songwriter with a rather soft style and voice with somewhat repetitive at times lullaby-like elements. Nabil comes from the small Touareg minority in Algeria. The booklet writes (-in French only-) about the disappeared traditional music styles, like the “imzad”, the monochord played by women and the poetry reciting by men, from which Nabil ‘s grand father was part of, and about the art of poetry, and the “tindé” style, a more communal shared style with percussion, dance, hand claps, lead voice and responding vocalists, still practiced by Nabil’s parents. Nabil’s father, Baly Othmani, adapted the oud to express himself in this “tindé” tradition. Living in a somewhat touristic area, Nabil knows how rap, reggae, rock and oriental music often became part of the new traditions, being changed by the youngsters once more. Nabil’s main guitar is the acoustic guitar. I am sure that also the occasional participating French all take part in the style variations.
The songs of Nabil Othmani sound rather simple. There are some soft vocal harmonies added, often very close in harmony with his own voice, sometimes only confirming certain colours, keeping the harmonies and spirit close like close friendships, with less freedom or responses, keeping it simple, but it can be that there are some harmony responses. Also the second and third guitars keep it simple, and percussion is extremely sparse. On “Djanet” the background strums have a reggae influence, while the electric guitar is played like in a rock song way, responding to the voice’s tune. Most often the song melody is adapted by the guitars, which play it, rhythmically, with a bit of its own freedom. Distinctively different is “Anhedji” co-writen by Nadil’s father, from which the guitar theme sounds pretty Spanish, and also “Nahla” has something of an Andalusian flavour. On “Aran Adam” is added a cello arrangement, which makes it also different. The last track is led by acoustic and electric oud, (with electric guitars and at first bass drum only), is very loop-like repetitive in a bluesy way, building up in a few parts. One song is in French.
